1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to substrate firing device that prevents the substrate support portions from generating scratches on the substrate upon contraction or expansion of the substrates caused by rising and falling temperature of the substrate firing device by increasing a contact area between the substrate and substrate support portions.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, in manufacturing a flat panel display device such as a plasma display device, a liquid crystal display device or an organic light emitting display device, a printing process, a drying process, a firing process and the like are performed to form an electrode layer, a dielectric layer, barrier ribs and the like, depending on materials constituting them, production methods, and the like. Among these processes, the firing process is a process of curing a curable material by heating a combined raw material. In a substrate firing device performing such a firing process, a plurality of substrates are loaded in a thickness direction of the substrates, and support portions supporting the respective substrates are formed. The support portions are arranged beneath a bottom surface of each of the substrates to support the substrate in a point contact form at both ends of the substrate in a direction that the substrate is loaded into and unloaded from the substrate firing device.
In this arrangement, since the substrate and the support portion form a point contact with each other, a concentrated load is applied to this tiny contacted portion. This can cause the substrate support portions to generate scratches on the substrate upon contraction or expansion of the substrates that occurs when the temperature in the substrate firing device rises and falls.
As flat panel display devices become slimmer, if scratches are generated on a substrate in a substrate firing process, the scratches generated on the substrate remains even after an etching of the substrate. Therefore, the quality of a final product can be degraded.